AMC
Tonight The Walking Dead airs at its regular time of 9 p.m. Eastern. But if you’re getting excited because you’ve noticed that your DVR has allotted two hours for the new episode, or because you’ve noticed that Talking Dead isn’t premiering until 11 p.m. Eastern rather than 10 p.m., don’t get too excited. It looks like tonight’s The Walking Dead is not actually a two-hour-long episode tonight, we’re sad to say. It will only be about three minutes longer than normal. Yes, we’re disappointed about this news too since we really wanted a two-hour Negan vs. Rick battle. Instead, a new series will be premiering on AMC between The Walking Dead and Talking Dead. Read on for more details.
Tonight, The Walking Dead is scheduled to be two hours long, according to TVGuide.com, DVR recordings, and even AMC’s online schedule. Yes, your DVR is recording two hours and TVGuide.com is even indicating that the episode will be lasting for two hours and three minutes. But that information may not be accurate, unfortunately. Alert fans are realizing that when they looked at encore presentations of tonight’s Season 8 Episode 13, those later airings aren’t scheduled to last two hours like the first one. The 12:03 a.m. Eastern showing of “Do Not Send Us Astray” is scheduled to end at 1:05 a.m. Eastern. Then Comic Book Men airs at 1:05 a.m. Eastern, followed by The Walking Dead Episode 13 again from 1:35 a.m. to 2:37 a.m. Eastern.
Also, if you look at The Walking Dead‘s schedule in the UK, you’ll also see that tonight’s episode isn’t two hours long. The Walking Dead airs on Fox in the UK on Monday nights, the day after each episode premieres in the U.S. According to Fox’s schedule in the UK, Episode 13 is only an hour long, airing from 9-10 p.m. Alert fans (such as Harv who commented below) have also told us that last week, Talking Dead said that tonight’s episode would only be an hour long.
So although the first airing of tonight’s episode is scheduled to last for two hours, all other airings are only scheduled to last an hour. The only time AMC has done this before is when it was sliding in a new series premiere to surprise viewers and hopefully catch some fans of The Walking Dead who might not normally watch the new series or even know it exists.
It appears that at 10 p.m. Eastern, instead of Talking Dead, AMC will air a new series called The Terror. The Terror will regularly air Mondays at 9 p.m. Eastern. It’s speculative fiction based on the historical disappearance of a Royal Navy ship in 1845, so fans who like the survivalist aspect of The Walking Dead might also like The Terror. It’s officially premiering tomorrow with two-hour back-to-back episodes. But it’s possible that a sneak peek will air tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern to try to gain more viewers for the show. AMC likely is hoping that viewers will stick around through the episode if they’re wanting to see Talking Dead, and that viewers who are recording The Walking Dead might go ahead and watch the new series if it records on their DVRs.